The present invention relates to electronic watt-hour meters which include a solid state microprocessor coupled to a watt-hour sensor. 2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, various electronic watt-hour meters incorporating a microprocessor therein have been proposed. Such electronic watt-hour meters have provided for monitoring of and storing of information related to power demand and power use by a consumer. Also, such meters have included circuitry, programming and switches connected to various consumer loads for enabling the microprocessor to switch off or de-energize certain consumer loads during high electric use periods, e.g., daytime, and to switch on or energize these loads during low electric use periods, e.g., night-time.
Examples of such previously proposed electronic watt-hour meters are disclosed in the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Patentee ______________________________________ 3,505,508 Leyde 3,522,421 Miller 3,789,201 Carpenter, et al. 4,034,233 Leyde 4,059,747 Brody 4,075,699 Schneider, et al. 4,240,030 Bateman, et al. 4,241,237 Paraskevakos, et al. 4,253,151 Bouve ______________________________________
See also European Patent Application Publication No. 0015666 for: Apparatus for Controlling Electric Power Consumption, filed by South Eastern Electricity Board, Queens Gardens Hove, Sussex, England.
Still further, it has been proposed to utilize a Hall-effect sensor for monitoring and measuring the electric power consumption by a consumer in an electronic watt-meter. Examples of such previously proposed Hall-effect sensors and watt-meters are disclosed in the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Patentee ______________________________________ 3,317,835 Dietz, et al 3,328,689 Raines, et al 3,343,084 Gambale 3,921,069 Milkovic 4,283,643 Levin, et al ______________________________________
As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the solid state watt-hour meter of the present invention differs from the previously proposed electronic watt-hour meters by not only providing a solid state Hall-effect sensor and time/load switching functions in the microprocessor of the meter but also by providing a reset function whenever there is a consumer-initiated override of the time/load switching function of the microprocessor.